| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Official Publications
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list his Department's spending on official publications for (a) 1996-97, (b) 1997-98, (c) 1998-99, (d) 1999-2000 and (e) 2000-01 and the planned expenditure for 2001-02. [141442]
Dr. Moonie [holding answer 11 December 2000]: The Department does not hold the information in the format requested. The sums expended on Commercial and HMSO publications can be identified for the years requested and are shown in the table. These sums include those for on-Vote Agencies but do not include off-Vote Trading Funds or staff costs.
| £ million | |
|---|---|
| 1996-97 | 6.866 |
| 1997-98 | 7.250 |
| 1998-99 | 6.910 |
| 1999-2000 | 7.499 |
| 2000-01(3) | 6.055 |
(3) Estimate
14 Dec 2000 : Column: 222W
Colombian Armed Forces
Mr. Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what training facilities in (a) the United Kingdom and (b) British bases overseas are being used by members of the Colombian armed forces. [142316]
Plan Colombia
Mr. Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what deployment of members of the UK armed services is required by participation in Plan Colombia. [142312]
Mr. Spellar: There is no UK armed forces involvement in Plan Colombia.
HOUSE OF COMMONS
Accommodation and Works Committee
Mr. Brake: To ask the Chairman of the Accommodation and Works Committee what is the cost of the bridge between Portcullis House and Norman Shaw South. [142550]
Sir Sydney Chapman: When the work is complete, the cost is expected to be some £590,000 inclusive of VAT and fees.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
Entry Clearance
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many cases have been reviewed by the Independent Monitor of Entry Clearance Refusals in each month of the current year to date. [142792]
Mr. Vaz: The Independent Monitor reviews each year a random sample of eligible entry clearance refusals. He or she decides when to do this. Dame Elizabeth Anson reviewed 1,800 refusal decisions from 1999 for her last report, dated 28 June 2000. A report by the new Independent Monitor, Rabinder Singh, covering refusals in 2000, will be laid before Parliament by the end of 2001.
Raoul Wallenberg
Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations he has made to the Russian Government concerning the disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg in 1945. [141524]
Mr. Vaz: Sweden set up a bilateral Commission with Russia to look at all available evidence regarding the disappearance in 1945, of the Swedish diplomat, Raoul Wallenberg. This commission is due to issue a joint conclusion in Stockholm in January 2001. We await this conclusion with interest but have not participated in the investigation.
Competitions (Europe)
Mr. Lilley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many primary schools
14 Dec 2000 : Column: 223W
(a) were invited to participate and (b) submitted entries to his Department's competition entitled "My Vision of Europe". [141315]
Mr. Vaz: We issued an open invitation to all of the UK's primary schools to enter the competition. We received winning entries for eight regions from the co-sponsor Time Group Ltd., from which the panel of judges selected the national winner.
Mr. Lilley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much was spent by (a) his Department and (b) schools on his Department's competition entitled "What Europe Means to Me". [141317]
Mr. Vaz: To date the costs of the "What Europe Means to Me" competition have been borne by the co-sponsor, British Midland. We are not aware of any expenses accruing to schools.
Mr. Lilley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if essays critical of further integration were eligible for the competition entitled "What Europe Means to Me". [141313]
Mr. Vaz: All entries on the theme "What Europe Means to Me" were eligible for this competition.
Mr. Lilley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much was spent (a) by his Department and (b) by schools on his Department's competition entitled "My Vision of Europe". [141316]
Mr. Vaz: We estimate that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will spend approximately £6,000 on this competition once all bills are in. This covers the cost of the awards ceremony on 30 October, and the transport costs of the schools that submitted the winning entries. Some London schools attending the ceremony carried their own costs.
Mr. Lilley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what age groups were invited to participate in his Department's competition entitled "My Vision of Europe". [141314]
Mr. Vaz: The "My Vision of Europe" competition was open to all of the UK's primary schools.
Chechnya
Mr. David Atkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the outcome of the recent meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council regarding the situation in Chechnya. [142378]
Mr. Vaz: The OSCE Ministerial Council, held in Vienna on 27-28 November, did not reach consensus on a Declaration, due in part to differences over the draft language on Chechnya. The Austrian Chair-in-Office issued a statement on her own authority. On Chechnya she noted that a political solution to the conflict was essential, that Ministers had requested Russian support for the immediate return of the OSCE Assistance Group, and called for independent investigation and prosecution of alleged human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law.
14 Dec 2000 : Column: 224W
Northern Ireland
Mr. John D. Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when the "Your Britain, Your Europe" roadshow will visit Northern Ireland; which locations it will visit; and if he will make a statement. [142403]
Mr. Vaz: I plan to visit Northern Ireland on 22 January. My officials are in contact with the Northern Ireland Executive about the programme.
Visa Centres (Indian Subcontinent)
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on proposals for the establishment of new visa centres in the Indian subcontinent. [142857]
Mr. Vaz: The new offices will be in Jallandhar and Ahmedabad in India; Sylhet in Bangladesh; and Lahore in Pakistan. We continue to discuss with the Governments of the countries the details of the proposed operations. We need their agreement before we can proceed any further.
The new offices should save visa applicants unnecessary travel and expense. They will:
- offer advice on entry clearance requirements and procedures
- give out visa application forms and information leaflets
- accept, check and forward visa applications to the relevant High Commission or Deputy High Commission
- return passports to applicants once the application has been considered
- provide office and interviewing facilities for visiting entry clearance officers.
Nice Council
Miss Begg: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on vote re-weighting in the European Union following the European Council at Nice. [142875]
Mr. Robin Cook: The Nice IGC agreed that on 1 January 2005 member states' votes in the Council would be re-weighted according to the following table.
14 Dec 2000 : Column: 225W
This is the first time that votes in the Council have been re-weighted and the effect that it will have on the UK's relative voting influence 1 is set out as follows:
- 1 Relative voting influence is a measure of the fairness of a member state's vote weighting. It is calculated as the ratio between a member state's percentage of the total number of votes and its percentage of the EU's total population.
- The vote weighting system is a compromise between one vote per member state and an allocation of votes proportional to population size. Smaller member states are therefore proportionately over represented and have ratios above one. The reserve is true of larger member states.
| Current voting system | Nice agreement | |
|---|---|---|
| EU9 | 0.86 | 0.91 |
| EU12 | 0.75 | 0.83 |
| EU15 | 0.73 | 0.78 |
| EU21(4) | 0.66 | 0.72 |
| EU27(4) | 0.61 | 0.69 |
(4) For the purposes of this calculation, EU21 includes Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus. EU27 then adds Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania and Malta. Of course other scenarios for enlargement are equally possible
Under the Nice agreement, the voting system will be supplemented by a population safeguard. When a decision is to be adopted by the Council by a qualified majority, a member of the Council may request verification that the member states constituting the majority represent at least 62 per cent. of the total population of the Union. If this condition is not met, the decision in question shall not be adopted.
The effect of these changes is to ensure that in an EU of 27, a decision cannot be passed in the Council where QMV applies if the three largest member states--Germany, the UK and France--are opposed.
The Nice agreement also stipulates that a majority of member states must support a qualified majority for a decision to be passed by QMV.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |